A 2010 graduate of Winder-Barrow High School was seriously injured last week in Afghanistan.

Just two days after celebrating his 20th birthday, U.S. Army Private First Class Samuel Walley on June 6 stepped on an improvised explosive device while in pursuit of a member of the Taliban.

The bomb blew off his right leg and left arm. He underwent surgery in Afghanistan, was transferred to a hospital in Germany on Saturday, and is to be transferred in the coming days to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., for follow-up care and rehabilitation.

The injured soldier is a native of Winder and the son of William K. and Connie Walley.

The full story will be in the June 13 print edition of the Barrow Journal.

As a Community we need to rally around this Individual and his Family, he has served his nation and made a great personal sacrfice trying to defend and serve our Armed Forces. We need to honor his service. This makes him a Hero to the United States and to Winder,GA.

He fought along with his fellow brothers in arms honorably against COWARDS with their IED's to make us and the world a safer place. Cowards who start fights but have no honor to stand up and fight like real men but can only fight the cowards way. Thank this Man for his service and sacrifice.

I personally hope the community as a whole will see to this man's needs and his families needs. It should be painfully obvious that he will need to have his home fixed up for him during his Rehab and continue into his regular life.

I can only pray that his family will be looked after by the DOD or VA affairs but I still feel like he has paid the sacrifice for us as a whole and our country. Let this HERO know that we are grateful.